This invention relates to a unit for use in a fixed facility and a mobile station of a radio frequency communication system, such as a mobile telephone system.
A conventional mobile telephone system comprises a telephone exchange, a base station, and a plurality of mobile stations. The base station is coupled to the telephone exchange through a wire circuit and/or a radio circuit. The mobile stations are carried on automobiles and the like. A combination of the base station and the telephone exchange is herein called a fixed facility of the radio frequency communication system.
The base station includes a radio terminal for transmitting and receiving a radio frequency communication signal between the radio terminal and each mobile station. The communication signal corresponds to an internal signal which is transmitted between the telephone exchange and the radio terminal and concerned with an ordinary voice signal of a frequency band between 0.3 kHz and 3 kHz. When the communication signal is transmitted between the radio terminal and a selected one of the mobile stations, the selected mobile station receives or transmits the communication signal from and to the radio terminal through a selected one of a plurality of radio channels.
The conventional mobile telephone system is disadvantageous in that the communication signal is liable to reception by a third person, namely, to be intercepted by the third person. For example, the communication signal can be readily received by a radio scanner-receiver which is sold on the market. The radio scanner-receiver comprises an auto-tuning circuit capable of scanning the radio channels and of automatically detecting that one of the radio channels through which the communication signal is transmitted between the radio terminal and the selected mobile station.
When only a small number of the radio channels are available, the radio scanner-receiver readily intercepts the communication signal. The interception of the communication signal can not be prevented even by transmitting an idle signal through idle ones of the radio channels. Specifically, such an idle signal sounds as a tone specific thereto and can be distinguished by the third person from the ordinary voice signal. Therefore, the third person is not confused by the idle signal.
Interception of a communication signal is possible by monitoring an echo signal which occurs through the radio terminal and the telephone exchange when the communication signal is received by the radio terminal from a mobile station. An echo suppressor is included in the conventional mobile telephone system between the telephone exchange and the radio terminal and may serve to attenuate the echo signal. However, the echo suppressor is insufficient to prevent the interception.